"Now, there is something I would like you three to do for me..."
...
Police vehicles and unmarked cars lined the road outside the convenience store.
Yellow tape cordoned off the entrance, and several uniformed officers stood guard while investigators moved in and out of the building.
A small crowd had gathered behind the perimeter, with curious onlookers trying to catch a glimpse of what had happened inside.
Some were recording on their phones, while others whispered among themselves, speculating about the incident that had brought so many police officers to a convenience store.
Getting inside unnoticed would be difficult.
I could hardly expect the police to leave the entrance unguarded just because three people decided to start throwing punches.
Even if Harley and the others managed to draw their attention, there was no guarantee that the officers stationed around the store would abandon their posts.
Fortunately, I hadn’t asked them to get into a fistfight in the first place.
I had told them to create a distraction. What they chose to do with that instruction was their own problem.
From across the street, I watched as Harley began arguing with a man near the edge of the crowd. Marilyn and David soon joined in, their voices rising until several onlookers turned to look.
The argument grew loud enough to attract the attention of two nearby officers, who approached to find out what was happening.
Then Harley shoved the man.
The situation deteriorated almost immediately.
The man shoved him back, Harley retaliated, and Marilyn started shouting at both of them.
David tried to pull Harley away, only to get dragged into the scuffle himself.
A few people backed away while others raised their phones to record the spectacle.
The two officers called for assistance, and another pair moved away from the cordon to help separate the four of them.
It wasn’t a particularly clever distraction, but it was certainly noisy.
More importantly, it gave me an opportunity.
The officers guarding the main entrance remained at their posts, just as I had expected.
However, the commotion had drawn the attention of several people who had been standing along the side of the building, and the growing crowd made it difficult to tell who was watching what.
I didn’t intend to walk through the front entrance. That would have been idiotic.
Instead, I circled around the block, keeping my distance from the gathered crowd.
I had already spotted a narrow passage beside the neighboring building that led toward the convenience store’s rear wall.
It was partially obscured from the road, and with the police focused on the scene at the front, I had a chance of reaching it without attracting attention.
Today was October ██, ████.
I had confirmed the date through Harley and cross-checked it on the internet.
At first, I hadn’t thought much of it, but the moment I connected it to the information I remembered from [Arcana], I realized just how significant it was.
This was the day the story of [As Above, So Below] began.
Well, technically, it was the beginning of the prologue.
The opening of the book introduced one of its main characters, who became entangled in a supernatural incident while making an ordinary trip to a convenience store.
What should have been an entirely unremarkable day became the starting point of a series of events that would change the character’s life forever.
And now, I was standing inside that very convenience store.
Initially, I hadn’t been certain whether the stories I’d read about [Arcana] would actually unfold in this world. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
For all I knew, the books might have been nothing more than fictional accounts that bore no connection to the reality I’d found myself in.
But after confirming the date, identifying the location, and seeing the store sealed off by the authorities, I could no longer dismiss the possibility.
The stories I’d once read for entertainment were becoming reality.
’Does that mean I’ll actually get to meet the characters I’ve always loved reading about?’
My heart began to beat faster at the thought.
How could I not be excited?
For so long, these characters had existed only within the pages of books.
I’d followed their struggles, watched their stories unfold, and spent countless hours wondering what it would be like to meet them in person.
...Of course, most of the characters weren’t exactly pleasant to meet.
After all, [Arcana] was a horror universe. Many of its characters were deranged, strange, manipulative, or downright cruel.
Some were even worse than the supernatural entities they encountered.
Still, the thought of meeting characters I’d only ever read about was enough to excite me.
I gradually calmed myself down as I slipped into the passage and approached the store’s rear window.
Through the glass, I could make out the dim interior and the silhouettes of investigators moving between the aisles.
I waited until they were out of sight, then carefully worked my way through the broken window, keeping my movements slow and quiet.
According to [As Above, So Below], this was the same route the protagonist had used to escape the convenience store after surviving the supernatural space hidden inside it.
Of course, I wasn’t here to escape.
I was here to enter.
The interior was dark, with the lights switched off and most of the shelves barely visible. Outside, the commotion of the crowd continued, accompanied by the occasional wail of police sirens.
Their sounds filtered through the broken window, reminding me that the authorities were still gathered around the building.
Of course, this wasn’t the supernatural space yet.
As far as I could tell, the convenience store was still an ordinary building.
Whatever anomaly had occurred here was hidden somewhere inside, waiting for someone to stumble into it.
I took a deep breath and made my way toward the back of the store.
My destination was the employee-only storage room, where the store kept its supplies and other items that weren’t meant for customers.
According to the book, there was only one way to enter the supernatural space hidden inside this convenience store...
[After entering the employee break room, Nica stole a university textbook that did not belong to her. However, when she exited through the same door, she discovered that the convenience store had undergone a strange and inexplicable transformation.]
...In other words, I had to steal something.
It was odd how I could remember that line so vividly... I’m pretty sure my memory was never that great.
’Fuck... Why is my heart pounding so hard?’
I stood in front of the storage room door, staring at its handle.
I wasn’t used to this yet.
Sure, I’d already experienced the Neverending Staircase, but that place was completely different from what I was about to face.
Its horror came primarily from isolation, psychological torment, and the gradual erosion of hope.
It was a place that could break someone simply by forcing them to endure an eternity of loneliness.
This supernatural space, however, operated on an entirely different kind of horror.
The sort that relied on sudden jumpscares, grotesque entities lurking around corners, and terrifying encounters where a single mistake could result in something trying to kill you.
Actually, being killed would probably be considered a mercy in some of these places.
There were supernatural entities that preferred to toy with their victims, inflict unimaginable pain, or subject them to prolonged torture instead.
...Yeah. I’d much rather not experience any of that firsthand.
Who knew what awaited me on the other side?
’Huu... I’ll be fine. I’ll be fine.’
I took another deep breath, trying to steady my nerves.
Man, had I always been such a coward?
Seriously, it was so much easier to deal with these things when I was reading about them from the comfort of my own room.
Back then, I could enjoy the suspense, laugh at the characters’ terrible decisions, and wonder why they were so stupid.
Now that I was the one about to walk into a supernatural space, I suddenly understood why they acted that way.
...Damn it.
I reached for the handle.
’All right. Let’s do this.’
I finally reached for the doorknob and opened the door.
The storage room was cramped, with cardboard boxes stacked against the walls and shelves filled with spare supplies.
A few cleaning products had been left in one corner, while assorted snacks and packaged goods occupied the remaining shelves.
Nothing seemed particularly unusual.
I glanced around before reaching for a small item on one of the shelves.
With the stolen item in hand, I turned around and stepped back toward the door.
And the moment I opened it... Everything went silent.
The sound of the police sirens vanished along with the noises of the crowd outside. Even the faint sounds of traffic that had filtered through the broken window were gone.
I stood stiffly, still taken aback.
Slowly, I looked toward the front of the convenience store.
The barricaded entrance was no longer barricaded.
The broken window had somehow returned to its original condition, and the lights that had previously been switched off now illuminated the entire store.
Everything looked clean, orderly, and completely normal.
If I hadn’t witnessed its previous state with my own eyes, I would have assumed this was an ordinary convenience store.
...So this was it.
I’d successfully entered the supernatural space.
I slowly turned my head toward the counter.
There, standing behind it, was a short woman wearing a convenience store employee’s uniform. Her body trembled slightly as she turned to face me, her expression stiff with fear.
Nica, one of the main characters in the book of [As Above, So Below.]